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Teacher Training Video resulting from the Project.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Math: School-To-Work Project (SEM:STW) was designed and carried out by IWITTS to increase the number of women and girls in SEM-related classes and careers through School-To-Work system-building.

As part of the Project, IWITTS produced the interactive teacher training video "School-to-Work: Preparing Young Women for High Skill, High Wage Careers" and accompanying train-the-trainer publications. This video was used in hundreds of IWITTS's WomenTech Training workshops for educators in state, regional and local educational institutions across the country. Donna Milgram, Executive Director of IWITTS, served as Principal Investigator for this joint effort with the North Carolina School-to-Work Office and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

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Project Goals and Objectivesreqpdbutton

The project's primary goals were:

Within the North Carolina Demonstration Project, the objectives for the Project's teacher/counselor participants (STW objectives) were:

Teacher Training Video

Focusing on both college and non-college bound girls, IWITTS developed a video and a set of related materials that could be used to accomplish these goals.   We then conducted a demonstration intervention in North Carolina, using a "train-the-trainers" approach in which selected teachers, counselors and STW coordinators were provided a two-day training workshop, a full complement of training materials and back-up support services via email.

These Project participants were then expected to use Project materials with their own local students and also to provide similar training to teachers, counselors and STW coordinators in their local areas. Also during the Project, extensive efforts were made to disseminate the developed materials and to infuse gender equity into state and national STW system building and the SEM infrastructure.

Advisory Committee

To provide additional guidance for the Project, a 17-member national advisory committee was formed during the Project's first year. The committee included representatives of national organizations (i.e., Association of Women in Computing, American Vocational Association and American School Counselor's Association) and a local principal, teachers, students and parents in SEM classes/schools.

The advisory committee served as an important resource throughout the Project, providing extensive feedback during the development of the video, and advice on recruitment of workshop participants, project evaluation and national dissemination of the Project's training and materials.